Jellagen Limited is an ISO13485:2016 certified marine biotechnology company manufacturing a next generation collagen Type 0 derived from jellyfish (CT0). Purified Collagen Type-0 offers a biochemically ancient framework that is advantageous in terms of sustainability, technical utility and superior biological safety compared to traditional mammalian-sourced collagen. Therefore, CT0 is an exciting candidate for the development of new medical devices for human tissue regeneration. This collaborative project with German partners will expand upon proof-of-principle studies looking at the biocompatibility of CT0\. Specifically, the outputs of project will be an optimised CT0 formulation supporting tissue healing evaluation and initiation of efficacy and safety trials.

High precision inkjet bioprinting has the potential to improve critical biomedical research, whilst replacing/reducing reliance on animal testing. Currently, the precision of bioprinting platforms for the research sector is limited and incapable of recreating complex architectures visualised _in vivo_ efficiently, with batch-to-batch consistency, for a tissue of interest, This project will see the development of a novel inkjet bioprinting system with a bespoke software operating system, as well as a next generation inkjet collagen Type 0 bioink formulation derived from jellyfish offering the ability to recreate complex 3D architecture and optimal in vivo efficacy.

The immediate concern for the Covid-19 pandemic is naturally the fate of patients suffering infection. But the disease may have long term consequences for the health of some who survive the initial infection. Covid-19 is primarily associated with damage to the lungs and respiratory distress, and there are increasing reports that some patients who recover from the viral infection are suffering long term damage to their lungs. This damage is often caused by fibrosis, the formation of an abnormal amount of fibrous tissue as a result of persistent inflammation and damage of the tissue. Treatments for fibrosis can mitigate the symptoms and slow down disease progression, but there is no cure. Those suffering these chronic conditions have a very poor quality of life. Covid-19 is likely to increase the number of these patients, adding to the long-term cost of healthcare which society needs to bear. Mesenchymal Stroma Cells (MSC) sourced form adult bone marrow and fat tissue have been used in cell therapies and shown to be safe and have some capacity to reduce fibrosis. In part this is a "paracrine" effect, where the MSC secrete bioactive factors which give rise to the therapeutic benefit either in cells adjacent to the MSC or elsewhere in the patient's body. But MSC sourced from adult donors have only a limited capacity to replicate. This means that the use of adult MSC requires repeated procurement of starting tissue which is expensive and leads to batch-to-batch variation. We have developed a patented technology to produce MSC-like cells from pluripotent stem cells (PSC). As PSC can be expanded almost indefinitely, we are able to produce almost unlimited quantities of clinically identical MSC using our process. In this project, we will investigate the capacity of our MSC to tackle fibrosis and the possibility that this can be achieved by the bioactive factors secreted by the cells. Our ambition is to develop a therapy which does not require MSC to be transplanted into a patient, but only the bioactive factors these cells produce. During the project we will be advised by clinicians as to how the healthcare burden of post-Covid therapy is developing and will refine our therapy development strategy as this need becomes more clear. By starting this research now, we aim to have a scalable therapy available as the need arises.

The project is based around developing a novel wound management dressing to combat biofilm formation and promote wound healing, allowing chronic wounds to be addressed more effectively and increasing the wound healing success rate. Biofilms are a major problem in chronic wounds and the reasons that these infections evade antibiotics and host defences are many, including antibiotic-insensitive physiological states of a proportion of the bacterial cells in a biofilm, and exclusion of host immune cells by the biofilm matrix produced by the bacteria. This makes the wound non treatable and prolonging the healing process, leading to the wound not healing and causing significant disruption to the life of the effected individual and incurring huge medical costs and lost productivity. The dressing will be made of jellyfish collagen, with a novel compound which has proven efficacy in biofilm disruption and in reducing pathogen virulence, allowing the pathogenic bacteria to be destroyed.

The project focuses on the creation of wound healing devices constructed primarily from jellyfish collagen. Chronic wounds are a global problem that put a large burden to health care services around the world, both financially and physically, and can severely affect quality of life. There is a need for products that can effectively heal chronic wounds, as they are hard to treat and can lead to multiple complications. Jellagen has developed a next generation collagen technology that can locally treat the chronic wound bed, improving blood supply to the area and acting as an antimicrobial at the same time. This represents an improvement on the current technologies available to treat chronic and acute wounds.

Biofilms are present in chronic wounds and are known to contribute to continued infection and inflammation with antibiotic resistance of biofilms complicating the problem. Current wound healing treatments are associated with antibiotic resistance and often use mammalian (bovine) collagen treatments, which risks contamination from disease causing agents such as prions (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy) and interspecies viruses. In the present Feasibility Study, by embedding jellyfish collagen with novel plant derived antimicrobials, it will be possible to produce a prototype product capable of delivering antimicrobial agents directly to the wound and reduce the need for antibiotics. By combating biofilms in chronic wounds, the consortium will reduce the burden on the NHS and drastically improve the quality of life of chronic wound sufferers. The wound healing product output of this project will address the current problems with wound chronicity that contribute to this growing problem in the UK.

Jellagen Pty Ltd (JPL) aims to conduct a Proof of Concept research project into the functionalisation of collagen and its fabrication into novel wound healing devices. The project aims to evaluate the potential of incorporating functionalised collagen into wound healing devices for a range of applications including the treatment of diabetic foot ulcers (DFU). This novel wound healing device is designed to replace existing technologies for DFU and other wound healing applications, as a more effective, easier to use and more accessible treatment option. The device will be constructed from our novel jellyfish collagen. Jellyfish collagen is a highly biocompatible biomaterial that has shown improved efficacy and performance over existing mammalian sourced collagen, and as a result it is an ideal material from which to construct wound healing devices. This means that the finished device has the potential to revolutionise the treatment of DFU, reducing economic pressure on health services and improving the treatment of and quality of life for sufferers of DFU.

Jellagen Pty Ltd is a Med-tech and Healthcare company producing medical grade collagen sourced from jellyfish, a sustainable and novel source of collagen biomaterials. During our collagen extraction process, an unidentified rare protein is lost in our waste water system. Our idea is to formally characterise this protein, assess the viability of extracting this protein from our existing process and to evaluate the commercial potential. This protein could have the potential to expand upon our existing range of high value biomaterial products.

Jellagen Pty Ltd (JPL) aims to conduct a Proof of Concept research project to optimise and refine the processing of jellyfish derived biomaterials to provide an efficient and cost effective route to manufacture a GMP and medical grade Type I and Type II collagen product for medical device & healthcare applications. The project aims to evaluate the potential of applying a range of novel engineering techniques to the marine biomaterial for the downstream development of improved collagen extraction techniques to produce medical grade material. This novel source marine biomaterial will then be evaluated for its potential to be developed into a range of membrane based scaffolds that could be applied to the manufacture of synthetic organs, aesthetic procedures and personal healthcare products. Biomaterials are considered to be one of the most attractive market segments within the medical device market with the potential of developing novel products of diverse application potential